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25.11: Chemistry Matters—Sweetness

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    448841
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    Say the word sugar and most people immediately think of sweet-tasting candies, desserts, and such. In fact, most simple carbohydrates do taste sweet but the degree of sweetness varies greatly from one sugar to another. With sucrose (table sugar) as a reference point, fructose is nearly twice as sweet, but lactose is only about one-sixth as sweet. Comparisons are difficult, though, because perceived sweetness varies depending on the concentration of the solution being tasted and on personal opinion. Nevertheless, the ordering in Table \(\PageIndex{1}\) is generally accepted.

    A sugarcane field with full bloom along with the clear sky.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): The real thing comes from sugarcane fields like this one. (credit: modification of work “Flowering sugarcane field” by “carrotmadman6”/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

    The desire of many people to cut their caloric intake has led to the development of synthetic sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame, and sucralose. All are far sweeter than natural sugars, so the choice of one or another depends on personal taste, government regulations, and (for baked goods) heat stability. Saccharin, the oldest synthetic sweetener, has been used for more than a century, although it has a somewhat metallic aftertaste. Doubts about its safety and potential carcinogenicity were raised in the early 1970s, but it has now been cleared of suspicion for human consumption.

    Table \(\PageIndex{1}\): Sweetness of Some Sugars and Sugar Substitutes
    Name Type Sweetness
    Lactose Disaccharide     0.16
    Glucose Monosaccharide     0.75
    Sucrose Disaccharide     1.00
    Fructose Monosaccharide     1.75
    Cyclamate Synthetic    40
    Aspartame Semisynthetic   180
    Acesulfame-K Synthetic   200
    Saccharin Synthetic   350
    Sucralose Semisynthetic   600
    Alitame Semisynthetic  2,000
    Neotame Semisynthetic  6,000
    Advantame Semisynthetic 20,000

    Acesulfame potassium, one of the more recently approved sweeteners, is proving to be extremely popular in soft drinks because it has little aftertaste. Sucralose, another recent sweetener, is particularly useful in baked goods because of its stability at high temperatures. Alitame, marketed in some countries under the name Aclame, is not approved for sale in the United States. It is some 2000 times as sweet as sucrose and, like acesulfame-K, has no aftertaste. Of the eight synthetic sweeteners listed in Table \(\PageIndex{1}\), only sucralose has clear structural resemblance to a carbohydrate, although it differs dramatically in containing three chlorine atoms. Aspartame, Alitame, and Advantame are dipeptides.

    The structures of three synthetic sweeteners – saccharin, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium, along with the structures of two semi-synthetic sweeteners – sucralose and alitame.

    This page titled 25.11: Chemistry Matters—Sweetness is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by OpenStax via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.